Always too late to bed: So you can deal with “Bedtime Procrastination”

“Bedtime Procrastination” describes a behavior in which one stays for longer than intended. You can find out what causes this has and how you can avoid staying up late here.

You scroll through Instagram for hours, look TV, click through online shops and check what new is on Instagram – although you should have been sleeping for a long time. If you too often push the bedtime, you may operate bedtime process (German: “Delay of bedtime”). Like any form of procrastinating, Bedtime Procrastination can result in negative consequences.

What is Bedtime Procrastination?

Everyone has probably put important things in front of them: homework or tax return, potentially unpleasant conversations or preparation for a presentation. Such a sporadic shift is to be differentiated from the disorder of the procrastination – a pathological form of pushing, which is characterized by the fact that one delays as urgent and necessary activities or tasks and instead makes something different that seems more pleasant in comparison.

The procrastination is a disturbance of self -control that generate great suffering and, in the worst case, can result in negative consequences at work and private life. Those affected often not only have to struggle with a guilty conscience, but also with a strong impairment of their personal goals as well as their physical and mental constitution. For example, it is not uncommon for yourself to devalue your own person, as you are annoyed by yourself to have delayed something unnecessarily.

With the bedtime procrastination, sleep is unnecessarily hesitated. According to the science magazine Spectrum, a definition has established itself in specialist circles, according to the Bedtime Procrastination

1. you actively move the falling asleep,
2. There is no valid reason for late staying,
3. And you know that it could have negative consequences for you.

For example, Bedime Procrastination can lead to a lack of sleep, which makes you less powerful the next day. Lack of sleep can also cause irritability and other psychological and physical problems. In the long term, too little sleep also causes heartbeat and blood pressure, the hormones, the metabolism and other functions.

Why do you procrastinate bedding?

In 2014, the social and behavioral researcher Floor M. Kroese from the Dutch University of Utrecht named the phenomenon of bedtime procrastination for the first time. The scientist has also examined the causes of the delayed density.

According to their research, there is a connection between Bedtime Procrastination and the personality: Accordingly, people proclaim their bedtime due to a lack of self -control. You would not have enough self-regulation to end entertaining activities such as television or the use of smartphones for the necessary bedtime-which may be uncomfortable if we often base brooding before falling asleep.

According to the spectrum, there is an “intention-behavioral gap” (German: “Project-behavioral gap”), which often occurs in the health context: For example Self -regulation not.

However, there are other scientific attempts to explain. The research results of psychologist Jana Kühnel from the University of Vienna sees the cause of bedtime procrastination more in the so -called chronotypes – in other words, how our internal clock ticks. According to Kühnel, it is the late chronotypes (owls) that tend to be bornttime on the working week rather than the early chronotypes (larks).

This is because late types have to adapt to schedules that do not correspond to their chronobiology: they have to get up early for work in the morning, even though they are not yet active. And because they are not tired enough in the evening, they have difficulty falling asleep. That’s why they hesitate to go to bed.

Sometimes there is also talk of “Revenge Bedime Procrastination” (German: “People’s Department of Pages from Revenge”) when it comes to staying unnecessary. As the term suggests, the Revenge Bedere Bedime Procrastination from “revenge” is alive: after a long, exhausting working day, you want to catch up with your free time at night that you didn’t have during the day. However, according to the spectrum, this behavior is not the same for Kühnel as classic bedtime. In contrast to Bedtime Procrastination, Revenge Bedime Procrastination is a intended to stay up for a long time.

This is how you avoid bedtime procrastination

As described, Bedtime Procrastination can lead to serious health problems. In order not to delay the night’s rest, you should first become aware of the effects. This can help to reconcile intent and behavior. Remember that you can achieve a positive effect (less tiredness) through changed behavior (sleeping earlier).

In addition, the following other tips can help you to avoid bedtime procrastination:

• Stand based on your sleep rhythm: if you are one of the “owls” and procrasinate the bed, because you are simply not tired in the evening, it helps to integrate sport into your everyday life. However, you should avoid strenuous sport until about an hour before going to bed.

• Think about a realistic evening routine: wonder when you want to go to bed and what you are going to do in the evening. So you can plan in advance how much time you have for the activities and what concrete bedtime results.

• Set clear rules: Your evening routine should provide, for example, that you remove your cell phone 30 minutes before your bedtime or switch off the TV. You should therefore also banish these objects from the bedroom.

• Focus on relaxation: if you delay the bed, because you often peek before falling asleep, you could develop personal rituals to relax. For example, you could try meditation to fall asleep, rub yourself with lavender oil or write your thoughts in a diary.

• More free time during the day: If you do Revenge Bedime Procrastination, try to find only half an hour for you during the day. So you don’t have the need to have to catch up with so much free time in the evening. You can read more about this here: Me Time: Why time is so important for yourself.

Read more on utopia.de:

• Tips for falling asleep: practical sleep aids

• Sleeping better with sustainable beds, mattresses, ceilings & Co.
• 5 sleeping errors: How to avoid them

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